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Field slaves
Describe the life of field slaves and how they communicated to enrich their lives. The land seemed infinite and the work was tough. There was a lack of men and an ever-growing need for food. The conditions that these European men and women faced were harsh, as they worked the fields, which they first settled on in Northern America. This was not a job that they had seen themselves doing when they had dreamed of this new land and new life. But what could be done? White servants arrived, wishing to pay their passage across the seas from Europe through manual labour, and for a while the early settlers’ problems were eased, but this was still not enough. Then early in the seventeenth century, a Dutch ship laden with African slaves introduced an answer. These slaves were very economical on large farms where labour-intensive crops, such as tobacco, sugar, rice and cotton could be grown. The white Europeans would have a prosperous life as the black slaves toiled away and produced the goods for them. But what of these black slaves? Were their lives spent working for the white man or working to find an escape route? The lives of the black field slaves in the Southern States of America were tough ones. Each slave was owned by a white master who housed and fed them, but also forced him or her to work hour after hour, for years of their lives. Not only were these slaves under a life contract but also if they had a child, as was highly likely (“families were large, with the average woman giving birth to about seven children”)1 then these children would also belong to the slave master. In this way the slaves were trapped in a never-ending cycle of enslavement, often turning to forms of religion to help them get through and find a purpose in their lives. Although nearly all slaves were illiterate and therefore could not read a bible, “with the help of friends and relatives, parents sang to their children, told them stories, and exposed them to their versions of Christianity.”2 These young children were often away from their parents as they worked on the plantations because they were only put to work around the age of 8-12. While their parents and older siblings were ploughing the fields, the young children would play amongst themselves, often under very little supervision. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, described a “slave-boy” as “a spirited, joyous, uproarious and happy boy”3 and many Black auto biographers of that era, recalled that as children they were totally unaware of being slaves. As well as running around, oblivious to the freedom they had, the young children would entertain themselves by playing games and singing songs. However songs were not only used for entertainment but also for a means of communication. As very few field slaves could read or write they could not pass messages to each other via notes on paper. Therefore other methods of communication were used, such as fabric quilts and coded songs. Symbols were established on quilts to indicate different tasks or messages the slaves needed to know. An example of this is the ‘Wagon Wheel Load’4, which indicated that slaves planning to escape should prepare to board the wagon and ready themselves for the getaway. These quilts would be hung over balconies and fences, looking inconspicuous to any passing white person. Songs with repeating lyrics were also used, as they were easy to remember and spread between groups. An example of one of these songs is: Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray Couldn’t hear nobody pray, Couldn’t hear nobody pray, Way down yonder by myself, Couldn’t hear nobody pray.5 This was coded to mean ‘an escape attempt had failed. We’re all trying to re-group, emotionally and spiritually.’ Many of these songs you can understand the meaning from, once you have been told, but for a slave owner hearing songs everyday with many of them not coding for anything, it was hard to pick out a song that could be giving directions. These means of communication were used for day-to-day life events, but mainly for the escape of slaves to the Northern States and Canada, where the slaves were free (Northern states were against slavery) and they were harder to be followed/caught by slave-catchers. A very famous escaped field slave went by the name of Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in the 1800s on a slave plantation in Maryland. As a child, Harriet was hired out to work as a house slave, caring for children and working around the house. As Harriet became older and stronger she was seen as capable of field and forest work and so worked on her owners’ plantation but also on other jobs nearby. One day when Harriet was working for another slave owner she came across an escaped slave. The owner commanded that she catch the man but Harriet refused. The slave got away and in the slave owners’ attempt to stop him he threw a two-pound weight, which incidentally collided with Harriet’s skull. With no medical help and a broken skull, Harriet suffered from seizures, migraines and other severe pain for the rest of her life. Nevertheless Harriet’s life wasn’t all bad. In 1849, at around the age of 29 she escaped with two of her eight siblings, Ben and Henry. Soon the boys lost confidence and wanted to return, so the three of them left Philadelphia, back to Maryland. Nevertheless, Harriet wanted to remain free, and after seeing her brothers back safely, she fled again. “Rather than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery.”6 In 1950 Harriet went back to help her niece and then back again and again to eventually help nearly 100 people to freedom. She received the nickname ‘Moses’ as she led her people out of trouble, being the most famous ‘conductor’ of ‘The Underground Railroad’, never losing a ‘passenger’ on the way. The Underground Railroad was the name given to the route that escaped slaves could take to travel north. By following slave songs, quilt symbols and guidance from ‘Conductors’ such as Harriet Tubman, hundreds, and possibly thousands of slaves found their way to freedom in the north. So after many years of toiling away for the White man, the Black man was finally free. As we have seen, the lives of slaves were very poor and unfit for a human being. This is inevitably why many slaves seeked freedom through escape just like Harriet Tubman, who had a terrible childhood but then escaped from her enslaved life to one of helping others. I think we can learn a lot from these people who obviously had a lot of willpower to get through life. Abby Bainbridge-Welch 2e BIBLIOGRAPHY Kolchin, Peter, (1993), American Slavery, Penguin Group Pubishers 10/10/13, http://www.biography.com '' 10/10/13, ''http://ctl.du.edu '' 10/10/13, ''http://www.lifeinmomma-tone.com '' '' '' ---- 1 ''Page 139, American Slavery, By Peter Kolchin 2 Page 142, American Slavery, By Peter Kolchin'' '' 3 Page 141, American Slavery, By Peter Kolchin 4'' ' http://www.lifeinmomma-tone.com/2011/09/underground-railroad-quilt-code.html '' ''5'' http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals/freedom/coded.cfm ' '' ''6'' http://www.biography.com/people/harriet-tubman-9511430?page=2'''' ''